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To Bed a Beauty by Nicole Jordan

Continuing with my theme of re-reading some of my favorite books, I'm looking at Nicole Jordan's Courtship Wars series, set during the Regency era, again. The series starts with the stories of three sisters (in order of publication and best read in order): To Pleasure a Lady (Arabella), To Bed a Beauty (Roslyn), and To Seduce a Bride (Lily). Book four, To Romance a Charming Rogue (Eleanor), is about the younger sister of one of the grooms. Book five, To Tame a Dangerous Lord, features Haviland (more in a moment) and releases on January 26, 2010. Tick-tock--anxiously waiting for book five!

To Bed a Beauty (2008) features Roslyn, middle child and considered the "looker" of the three Loring sisters, suffering financially and tainted by their notorious parents. Believing herself to be in love with Haviland (see that book five!!), an Earl and their neighbor, she decides to set about winning his love in return.

Having determined from her own parents' marriage and Society, in general, that men love their mistresses, not their wives, Roslyn seeks mistress-type, though only able to go so far, lessons from Drew, the Duke of Arden. Considering he's a master at attracting the ladies and never falls in love, probably because his mother is the shrew of all shrews, they should be fine together, right?

Of course, a crush isn't the same as true love, and a rake always reforms in the world of romance.

In the Courtship Wars series, Jordan has spunky, intelligent female characters, lots of internal struggle to overcome before the couples can get together, and spicy, though sparse, sex scenes.

You can read the books as stand-alones, but I do think you gain more from reading the entire series in order. I'll look at my favorite book from this series tomorrow.

Learn more at the author's site here, including some fun blogs "written" by some of the characters in this series.

I turn 47 today, so please leave a comment about a favorite birthday memory (yours or a time you spent with someone else) to get a spot in a drawing for a $47 online gift card to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Etsy (winner's choice). You have until 5 p.m. CST on Thursday, March 2, to comment.